Oldham Labour will put plans for a greener, affordable energy future to a vote at the full meeting on Oldham Council on Wednesday 15^th March.

Energy Bills have doubled since August 2021, the current energy price guarantee is £2,500. Prices are likely to rise in April when the £400 subsidy ends.

A survey by the Federation of Small Businesses in November 2022 found that 25% of their members had seen their energy costs double and 19% have seen their energy costs triple.

57% of respondents to the GM Residents Survey say they are struggling to pay their energy bills.

Since Oldham Labour’s We Can Help initiative was launched in September 2022, over £100,000 has been paid directly to residents to help them with their energy bills, three times as much as same time last year.

Oldham Labour has set ambitious targets to become the Greenest Borough in Greater Manchester and meet the goal of being a carbon neutral borough by 2030, with the council being carbon neutral by 2025.

Councillor Abdul Jabbar, Council lead for Finance and Low Carbon said  ‘Oldham Council is leading the way with innovative renewable energy solutions, including the ongoing Oldham Mine Water Heat Network project, Wrigley Head Solar Farm and community energy schemes. We declared a climate emergency in 2019 and became the first Green New Deal Local Authority in the country in 2020.  The Government backed our Greener Oldham £20m Levelling Up bid – one of only three successful bids in Greater Manchester. We are ambitious for Oldham and we are working to create a Local Energy Market to sell excess energy generated by council renewable assets to residents at a reasonable price, independent of the main energy providers, and to support the development of privately owned renewable energy generation in Oldham which can also help residents and businesses to reduce their energy bills through schemes likes the Oldham Energy Futures project – piloted in Sholver and Westwood – and the Oldham Green New Deal Delivery Partnership.’

Councillor Shoab Akhtar,   Cabinet Member for Employment and Enterprise added ‘ Businesses need more help now. Whilst businesses have welcomed support from central Government, it has not gone far enough. Almost a quarter of businesses in the FSBs survey anticipate that with further energy bills rises coming in April they will have to close, downsize or radically restructure. But we also need to think about the future, A Local Energy Market will help businesses with costs at the same time as helping the planet .We will work alongside a future Labour government to support the creation of a national public energy company, where the income generated will be reinvested into the UK, rather than into the pockets of shareholders or other nations who own energy companies operating in the UK.’